SHC directs Malir SSP to recover girl who was abducted in March

The Sindh High Court (SHC) has directed the Malir SSP to recover a girl who was

kidnapped in the Sohrab Goth area.

The direction came on a petition of Hafeeza Mai against the failure of authorities to arrest the culprits involved in kidnapping of her daughter. She submitted that Mohammad Ali, alias Pyara, had kidnapped her daughter Sughra on March 16 and still her whereabouts were unknown. She submitted that the Sohrab Goth police had made no progress in arresting the culprits involved in the kidnapping of her daughter despite a lapse of several months.

The high court took exception to the non-arrest of culprits and non-recovery of missing girl and directed the Malir investigation SSP to make efforts for the recovery of the girl and produce her before the court.

The SHC also directed the National Database Registration Authority to block the national identity card of absconding accused Ali and filed a compliance report by August 12.

Bail in murder case

The SHC granted bail to an accused person, Abdul Rasheed, in a murder case. He was arrested by the police for his alleged involvement in the murder a man and injuries to another in the Surjani Town area.

According to the prosecution, complainant Ghulam Ali had registered case at the Surjani Town police station stating that his son Fayyaz had a fight with a man, Shaukat, on March 16, 2019, and on provocation, Shaukat’s brothers Rasheed and Babar fired on him and his sons, Fayyaz and Irshad, as a result of which the former was wounded and the latter died.

A counsel for the applicant submitted that his client was roped in only because he was the brother of co-accused Shaukat and said that as per the CDR of the mobile phone of the applicant obtained by the investigation officer, he had an alibi which showed that he was not even present at the time and place of the incident. The counsel said that the complainant had himself called the applicant on his mobile phone to inform about the incident.

The complainant and the public prosecutor opposed the bail plea on the ground that the FIR showed the motive of the murder and the plea of alibi could not be considered at the bail stage as it entailed a deeper appreciation of the evidence.

A single bench of the SHC headed by Justice Adnan Iqbal Chaudhry observed that the incident was said to have taken place outside the residence of the complainant in Malla Karim Bux Goth, Taisar Town, however the CDR of the applicant’s mobile phone placed on the record by the investigation officer showed the location of that phone in Qayyumabad on the day of the incident and soon after the incident, calls were received on that phone from a mobile number which was said to be of the complainant.

The high court observed that the applicant’s plea of alibi was not without force. The bench observed that apparently the parties were known to each other and there was an enmity between the complainant’s son Fayyaz and the applicant’s brother Shaukat.

The SHC observed that the complainant had alleged that the accused party had fired upon them but the FIR did not ascribe a specific role or a specific weapon to the applicant, nor had the crime weapon been recovered from the applicant.

The high court observed that the element of throwing the net wide to implicate the applicant could not be ruled out at this stage. It granted the applicant bail subject to furnishing solvent surety in the sum of Rs300,000.